Friday, 12 December 2014

Hydrotherapy is a form of physiotherapy where the physical ailments of patients are treated by a series of exercises performed whilst submerged in water. The water is heated to 33-36 degrees Celsius to keep the patients and their muscles warm, improving blood flow. Carrying out the exercises helps them build up their strength and increase the range of movements they can carry out. The water supports the body weight making it an ideal situation for rehabilitating weakened limbs without causing further injury.
Hydrotherapy is usually focussed on slow controlled movement and relaxation of the patient.

The use of immersion in water for treating illness dates back to ancient times. However in the 19th century in particular it was revived as a reliable treatment in western Europe, backed up by scientific research and publications.
This is the hydrotherapy pool at the Princess Margaret Rose (PMR) Orthopaedic Hospital in approximately the 1950s, and comes from a pamphlet commemorating the hospital’s closure in 2001:

The PMR Hospital was built in 1932 specifically to deal with crippling diseases in Scotland. At various times the causes of these disabilities included tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, road accidents, arthritis and rheumatism and using the pool helped with rehabilitation of the patients. The pool was popular with many staff and patients and originally the physiotherapists wore chest waders as they treated patients!

The Western General Hospital also had a hydrotherapy pool and it continues to provide this type of treatment to this day. The image dates from approximately the early 1970s:

Hydrotherapy pool at the Western General Hospital, 1970s (P/PL13/P/055)

The hospital has been a centre of excellence in surgical neurology since 1960 and hydrotherapy provided treatment for patients recovering from paresis due to brain trauma and spinal surgery. Wards and clinics also likely to have made use of it would have included the orthopaedic department (which was open from 1960-1992) and the rheumatology department.

Friday, 5 December 2014

This week’s blog reviews the conservation
symposium organised by LHSA and held at Edinburgh University last week….

Last Friday, LHSA and the CRC hosted
“Conserving Condoms: Modern Materials in Medical Archives” at Edinburgh
University. The event consisted of lectures, workshops and advice clinics that focused on the conservation of modern material, and grant application to the Wellcome Trust for conservation work. It was funded by the Wellcome Trust’s small grants scheme and
inspired by the modern objects that I have found in the HIV/AIDS
collections.While working with these
collections, I have come across many plastic items that were degrading in strange
ways. As I researched these objects further, I found that there was a lot of
contradictory research that was sometimes difficult to understand. Since the
conservation of modern materials is a relatively new field, there is a general
lack of understanding and confidence when treating these items. Also, because the
items are newer, they are often not treated with as much care as older
items, even though they may have equal historical importance. We thought a
symposium on the subject would be a great way to share knowledge, encourage
debate and dispel any myths surrounding these modern materials.

Poster used to advertise the event

The
event proved to be extremely popular, with tickets selling out within a month.
Students, interns and professionals came from all over the UK to find out more
about this complex subject. The day kicked off with a keynote lecture by Dr Anita
Quye, Lecturer in Conservation Science at the University of Glasgow. Anita’s
main area of research is modern materials analysis, so she was ideally placed
to start the proceedings. She defined exactly what the difference is between
plastics and rubbers, and then went on to describe how these plastics can
degrade and how to identify them. Anita focused on four of the most problematic
plastics that are commonly found in heritage collections; cellulose acetate,
PVC, polyurethane and cellulose nitrate. Inspired by the title of the symposium,
Anita also gave us a fascinating insight into the conservation of condoms! Condoms
are well preserved by their foil packet, as it has good vapour barrier
characteristics and prevents the ingress of moisture, light and oxygen. In
fact, the foil packet is made from a very similar material to Moistop Barrier
Film™, which is frequently used in the storage and transport of museum objects!

Dr Anita Quye giving her keynote lecture on the conservation of modern materials

Sniffing
modern objects was the topic of the next talk by Linda Ramsay, Head of Conservation
at the National Records of Scotland. She discussed ‘Heritage Smells!’ a
collaborative project led by the University of Strathclyde that aimed to
identify plastics by taking air samples surrounding the items. Plastics release
specific volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) as they age. By capturing and
analysing these VOC’s, conservators can identify the plastic and also detect
any chemicals emitted by the items that are potentially harmful to humans or
neighbouring objects. An interesting case study Linda highlighted was a postcard
(screen print on yellow transparent PVC) by Joseph Beuys at the National
Galleries of Scotland. A large amount of “sweat” was present on the surface of
the artefact, which was assumed to be caused by the loss of plasticiser.
Interestingly, Beuys named this piece “Flowing Honey”, which makes us wonder;
did he know the plastic would sweat? Did he choose to use this material for this
effect?Or is the name just a coincidence!﻿

After a short break, Ruth Honeybone, Archive Manage at LHSA
gave a presentation about scoping for conservation work and how to put together
a successful funding bid. Ruth talked about the practicalities of deciding what
to treat, how to treat it and the materials and equipment needed, how long it
will take, who should do the work and where and, most importantly, how much it
will cost. To be able to tap into various funding schemes is key for many
smaller institutions and this sharing of knowledge was extremely beneficial to
many.

Following Ruth’s explanation on how she put together a
successful bid which led to the HIV/AIDS project, it was my turn to talk about
the conservation of it. I chose to talk about the some of the storage solutions
I had designed for problem plastics in the HIV/AIDS collections. I have talked
about these in previous blogs such as “Thinking about the Box: Storage of Plastics”. I wanted to share these solutions in the hope that they could be
used for all types of collections and not just modern ones.

After lunch, Sue Crossley and Amy Vickery (Grant Advisors
from the Wellcome Trust) discussed the various funding streams available for
conservation at the Wellcome Trust. The Wellcome Trust Research Resources grant
scheme funds the preservation, conservation, cataloguing and digitisation of
significant medical history collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland. There
are lots of funding opportunities available and Amy and Sue were both very open and
willing to answer all funding related questions. They suggest getting in touch
and talking to a member of the team directly to discuss any potential projects.

Sue Crossley and Amy Vickery describing the funding streams available at the Wellcome Trust

Next it was time for the workshop section of the symposium
and the group broke up to go to separate discussion groups based on their
interests. Some people stayed with Anita to discuss the conservation of modern
materials further, others joined Linda and Saho (Paper Conservator at National
Records of Scotland) to find out more about the ‘Heritage Smells!’ project,
while some joined Claire Knowles (Library Digital Development Manager) and
Kirsty Lee (Digital Curator), both from Edinburgh University, to consider the
challenge of digital preservation – another very modern problem in our
collections. I hosted a workshop on ‘Ethics and Plastic Packaging’ which looked
at the ethical issues surrounding the removal of certain packaging items from
collections and how this can alter the meaning and understanding of the
material.

Workshop group discussing ethics and plastic packaging

The day ended with tea, coffee, cake and advice clinics.
These were informal one to one clinics where delegates could talk to the
speakers directly about specific points. It was also an opportunity for the
participants to discuss the topics raised throughout the day and to network.
There was also the chance to have a tour of the CRC and conservation studio
with Conservation Officer, Emma Davey.

Overall, the event was really well received with many
positive comments and feedback from participants. I think the interest in this
day points to the growing concern surrounding the conservation of modern
materials and the need for further information on the subject. Hopefully, based
on the success of this event, many more like it will be hosted at Edinburgh
University in the future.

Lothian Health Services Archive holds the historically important local records of NHS hospitals and other health-related material.
We collect, preserve and catalogue these records and promote them to increase understanding of the history of health and for the benefit of all.

Use of images from LHSA collections

We can provide images from items in our collections, subject to various conditions. Images are provided for private study or non-commercial research, and cannot be used for other purposes unless you request and receive written permission from LHSA to do so.

If you wish to use any images that have been featured on this blog, please contact us at lhsa@ed.ac.uk and we will be happy to discuss permissions with you.